The present invention relates to water treatment apparatus used in soft drink and other dispensers to purify water as it is processed in such dispensers. In soft drink or postmix dispensers, water is treated, carbonated, and mixed with syrup to produce the soft drink dispensed to customers or users.
In the production of soft drinks in a bottling plant, full water treatment purifies water according to the quality of the water supplied to the plant. Such water treatment typically reduces hardness, assures sterility, and removes suspended solids, dissolved organic matter, and possibly other matter such as sodium and nitrates.
Postmix (soft drink) beverage dispensing systems employ water treatment apparatus which operates on a small scale as compared to the complex and large scale water treatment provided at the bottling plant level. However, U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,796, entitled FULL WATER TREATMENT APPARATUS FOR USE IN SOFT DRINK DISPENSING SYSTEM, issued to George Plester on Jul. 4, 1989, and assigned to the present assignee, discloses a relatively simple and inexpensive, yet effective, water treatment apparatus for use in postmix beverage dispensers.
The quality of water received from a general water supply normally meets local purification needs, but the quality varies from location to location. Thus, additional water treatment needed at the situs of each postmix beverage dispenser may vary according to the local water supply. In particular, local drinking water quality in many parts of the world may require situs treatment for excessive turbidity (suspended particles), microbiological or chemical problems, or undesirable taste and odor.
As a result, water treatment apparatus for postmix beverage dispensers typically have been designed inefficiently on a one-by-one basis according to situs water treatment needs. Further, such prior art designs have often resulted in apparatus lacking a match of treatment units to water problems at the installation situs. In other words, some guesswork has often been used in creating designs for prior art water treatment apparatus to be installed at a particular situs.
Further, even where acceptable matches have been made in installed treatment units and situs water problems, the operators often would not know or adequately plan in advance when installed filters became used up. In these cases, the lack of water has caused carbonator pump burnup.
Moreover, if problems in the water supplied to an installed prior-art water treatment apparatus were to change after installation, a new design and a new or modified water treatment apparatus has been required to match the changed problems in the water supply. Again, the new or modified apparatus would typically involve some design guesswork. In any case, excessive cost would be incurred and the new water treatment requirements might or might not be met.
Accordingly, for economy in manufacture and distribution, postmix water treatment apparatus needs to be structured so that it can be readily and economically customized to water treatment requirements at the installation situs at the time of installation, as well as subsequently during the apparatus lifetime if water treatment requirements change at the situs.
Further, postmix water treatment apparatus requires maintenance to assure continuing efficacy of water treatment as usage occurs over time. Maintenance has typically been provided by scheduled replacement of treatment cartridges, and, in some instances, in response to automatic indications of end-of-cartridge-life. Thus, a need has also existed for better real time monitoring and control in dispenser water treatment apparatus to enable better maintenance by the owner/user and better efficacy in water treatment.